I sat in my form room with Rae, watching all the popular girls angrily gossiping between themselves, throwing glares at others in the room.

"If I ask what happened are you going to say I live under a rock?" I questioned quietly, making sure no one heard me. Rae looked around the room with her mouth agape, not sure where to begin.

"I'll let you off this time." She replied jokingly. "Well, Liam had his first date last night and Nicola's been talking about it with everyone - like literally. She told the dinner lady when I came in this morning..." she rolled her eyes at me and I held back a laugh. "Anyway, she's being forcing her story onto everyone and gloating about what a fantastic date they had and how she is sure she's going to get picked unless the others step up their game." I furrowed my brows and bit my lips together. Do I tell Rae what Liam told me? Will it blow up and ruin Nicola and Liam's chance? Will he be seen as bad for telling me? What will they think of me? My heart was thumping heavily as I quickly tried to decide the best thing to say back.

"Do you care?" I tried to get past the story.

"Well, it does make me feel intimidated. It's not long until my date with Liam and now I'm feeling like I need to look a million dollars and serve him the best food, fun and flirtiness I have!" She looked over at me, desperation looming in her eyes.

"Is flirtiness even a word?" I smiled slyly as she playfully punched me in the arm. "Well, you've got nothing to worry about - you already look great and you're great fun to be around. He's onto a winner." I smiled confidently as I said my piece but Rae didn't look as impressed.

"I appreciate the pep talk but I don't think that's going to make my date any better." She sighed. I'd never seen her like this before - I could have sworn she was completely unbothered about it at the beginning and now she's depressed because of it.

"Well between you and me, you've got nothing to worry about." I whispered in her ear and she gave me a confused side glance. "Nicola and Liam's date was absolutely awful." She scoffed at first but when she looked at my serious expression, she leant in.

"Says who?"

"Liam." I said as if it was common knowledge. "He didn't have any fun." She hesitated before a smile grew on her face. She hit me in the arm.

"Look at you getting all the information first hand with your new friend." She winked at me. "Keep me informed please!" I nodded just as bell rang for first class. We got up and exchanged quick hugs as I set off to English, where I could hopefully see Conor again. For some reason, knowing that filled me with excitement and nerves. Would it be weird if I tried to sit next to him in class? Or offered him the seat next to me? Our exam is in two weeks and it would be good to have a-

Wait. What am I doing? I thought I made a pact with myself to not get involved with people until exams were over and I could be stress free. No?

Before I knew it, I was already walking into the classroom, suddenly having to decide where to sit and what to say without any pre-thought. Instinctively I headed for my normal chair and looked out the window again at the younger kids playing and fooling around before class. Oh how I wish I could go back to when life was that simple.

"Loraini." I tried desperately to hide the smile growing on my face as I turned from the window to face Conor.

"Hey!" I said, trying to sound like normal, instead of the excited teenager I felt inside.

"Are you okay if I sit here today? We studied well last lesson and I just thought-"

"Yeah sure!" I cut him off. He threw his bag down beside me as he simultaneously let out a nervous breath. I pretended not to hear it. "I was actually thinking the same thing so that's good!" He smiled at me, which I retaliated as I pulled my books from my bag and settled into class. Again, the teacher wasn't too interested in what we were doing and instead sat doing sudoku in the local paper.

"How did you enjoy yesterday?" Conor whispered, hoping the likes of Katelyn weren't listening in.

"Yeah it was great! It was nice to feel like I had some friends." I let out a dry laugh. "But thank you for the food and drink, you guys made me feel at home." He rubbed the back of his neck with his hand.

"It's okay." He paused for a second. I looked over to him, his face moving its features as he was in deep thought, almost like he was confused with something. "You mind if I ask you something Loraini?" He finally spoke again.

"Go ahead." I answered, a little element of fear in my voice.

"When Liam asked why you'd been so busy, you didn't tell him the whole story like you had with me. I just wanted to know why?" He glared down at his desk as he spoke, pretending to be reading his book. I'd already completed that one and reread parts of it, so I just doodled in my book pretending to be writing. How was I meant to answer something I don't even know the answer to? I gulped down the nervous feeling before I spoke.

"I don't really know. I suppose you and me had been having a heart to heart conversation beforehand and it just seemed right. Liam had just asked it to find out some information, so I just didn't feel like he needed to know that about me. I don't really get it but I suppose that's the best way to describe it." I did softly, looking up to Conor and seeing his gaze was already on me.

"Damn it Loraini..." he huffed. "Why do you have to make this so hard on me?!"